North East of Scotland Music Festival (est. 1908)

Launched in 1908 by Professor Charles Sanford Terry (1864 - 1936), the North East of Scotland Music Festival was the first of its kind in Scotland. It promoted the development of a lively music festival movement in Aberdeen and the North of Scotland, which continues to thrive nearly a century later.

Charles Sanford Terry (1864 - 1936), eldest son of Charles Terry, Newport Pagnell, graduated from Clare College, Cambridge, BA 1886, MA 1891. He was Lecturer in History at Durham College of Science, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1890 - 1898, joined the University of Aberdeen in 1898, and was made first Professor of History there, 1903 - 1930. An authority on the life and work of Johann Sebastian Bach, and author of several books on the subject, including the much re-published Bach: a Biography (1928), he also composed music, and was instrumental in developing the early twentieth century Music Festival movement in Aberdeen and the North of Scotland. He published widely on historical topics, in particular, Jacobitism, Imperialism, and European history. For details of his life and works see Who Was Who, 1929 - 1940, and Aberdeen University Review, 24 (1936 - 1937), 42 - 43, 123 - 126, 145 - 146 .